Granular synthesis

Granular synthesis is a basic sound synthesis method that operates on the microsound time scale.

It is based on the same principle as sampling. However, the samples are not played back conventionally, but are instead split into small pieces of around 1 to 50ms. These small pieces are called grains. Multiple grains may be layered on top of each other, and may play at different speeds, phases, volume, and frequency.

At low speeds of playback, the result is a soundscape, often a cloud, that is manipulable in a manner unlike that for natural sound sampling or other synthesis techniques. At high speeds, the result is heard as a note or notes of a novel timbre. By varying the waveform, envelope, duration, spatial position, and density of the grains, many different sounds can be produced.

Both have been used for musical purposes: as sound effects, raw material for further processing by other synthesis or digital signal processing effects, or as complete musical works in their own right. Conventional effects that can be achieved include amplitude modulation and time stretching. More experimentally, stereo or multichannel scattering, random reordering, disintegration and morphing are possible.

History

Dennis Gabor researched how human beings communicate and hear. The result of his investigations was the theory of granular synthesis, although Greek composer Iannis Xenakis claimed that he was actually the first inventor of this synthesis technique. Xenakis was the first to explicate a compositional theory for grains of sound. He began by adopting the following lemma: "All sound, even continuous musical variation, is conceived as an assemblage of a large number of elementary sounds adequately disposed in time. In the attack, body, and decline of a complex sound, thousands of pure sounds appear in a more or less short interval of time." Xenakis created granular sounds using analog tone generators and tape splicing. These appear in the composition Analogique A-B for string orchestra and tape (1959).

Steve Reich has also claimed to use the tool of granular synthesis, particularly in pieces Three Tales, City Life, and an upcoming piece in regard to the 9/11 attacks.

Unsuk Chin has used granular synthesis in her ensemble Work Xi and her piano piece Grains.

Rudolph Widmer used granular synthesis techniques both sonically and visually in a large interactive installation piece at the Berlin Staatsoper on August 23, 2011. The project incorporated video and audio granules obtained randomly from the audience participants. This installation will run in New York through November 2011.

Curtis Roads is often credited as the first person to implement a digital granular synthesis engine. Canadian composer Barry Truax was one of first to implement real-time versions of this synthesis technique.

Graintable synthesis

The Malström synthesizer in Propellerhead's Reason virtual music studio employs a technique known as Graintable synthesis, a technique ostensibly invented by Propellerhead for use in Malström:

Graintable synthesis is neither granular nor wavetable synthesis but a combination of the best of both methods. The results are exciting, controllable and texturally extremely varied. The basis of a Graintable is a sampled sound, which has been pre-processed using an extremely academic and complex method. A whole leaflet would be needed just to describe this. Suffice to say, the result is a perfect set of periodic waveforms that, due to the pre-processing, can be manipulated in a variety of ways. The Graintable can be treated as a wavetable: sweep through it, move through it at any speed without affecting pitch, play any little section repeatedly, use it to pick static waveforms, jump between positions etc.

—Propellerhead, 

Programming Languages

• Csound comprehensive music software including granular synthesis (overview over granular synthesis opcodes)
• SuperCollider programming language for real time audio synthesis
• Reaktor visual programming environment for sampling, granular sampling, sequencing and modular synthesis
• Max/MSP graphical authoring software for real-time audio and video
• Pure Data (Pd) graphical programming language for real-time audio and video
• ChucK audio programming language for real-time audio synthesis
• Real-time Cmix programming language for real-time audio synthesis, including several algorithms for granular synthesis
• Usine multi-touch visual programming audio manipulation software
• AudioMulch modular audio software for real-time audio manipulation

Articles

• Granular Synthesis by Eric Kuehnl
• "The development of GiST, a Granular. Synthesis Toolkit Based on an Extension of the FOF Generator" by Gerhard Eckel and Manuel Rocha Iturbide
• Searching for a global synthesis technique through a quantum conception of sound by Manuel Rocha Iturbide
• Going with the Grain a review of 10 granular synthesis programs by Dennis Miller (2008)
• Further articles on Granular Synthesis

Books

• Roads, Curtis (2001). Microsound. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-18215-7. 
• Miranda, E. R. (2002). Computer Sound Design: Synthesis Techniques and Programming. Oxford: Focal Press. ISBN 0-240-51693-1. 
• Roads, Curtis (1996). The Computer Music Tutorial. Cambridge: The MIT Press. ISBN 0-252-18158-4. 
• Wilson, Scott (2011). The SuperCollider Book. Cambridge: The MIT Press. ISBN 978-0262232692. 
• "Les techniques granulaires dans la synthèse sonore by Manuel Rocha Iturbide. Doctoral Thesis. University of Paris VIII, Paris France, 1999.

Further reading

• Digital signal processing
• Micromontage audio montage on the time scale of microsounds
• Texture synthesis, analogous process for images
• Granular Synthesis Resource Web Site